John E would like this

My brother John E (age 8) has recently been reading the "Star Wars" books. He loves them and has been trying to persuade me of their coolness. Come on! How long have those movies been big? I'll admit that the original Trilogy was pretty good, but the newer movies have only ruined the subject for me. Anyway, I wasn't convinced, but this morning as I was driving, I saw something that made me think that maybe I'm supposed to join the Star Wars bandwagon after all.




Not joking. I saw this face (minus the storm trooper in the back) walking across University Parkway in Provo. Is it a sign?

The Rough Spots Along the Road

I ran a marathon once. It was one of the hardest experiences of my life. I trained for months and months--running day after day, mile after mile. Finally, the anticipated day arrived. I now had the chance to prove that all my preparation and hard work had been worth it. I started running and felt great. Then, at around 18 miles, my body gave up on me. My many months of struggling had been for nothing. It was too hard. I had to give up.
Then, something inside me reminded me that I was ready for this race, and that I could do it despite what my brain was telling me. I started off once again, and finished the race--tired, but triumphant.
Our personal capacities are often more than we know, and many times, we don't find out until they are tried and tested, and then we see if we are enough for the challenges that face us.
Maybe the biggest thing that we learn is that we don't have to carry ourselves through those hard times.

I like the song "Stand" by Rascal Flatts.

"Slow down, you move too fast"

Have you ever been in a grocery store, searching for the shortest line when you think you've finally found it? Then, you end up standing behind a woman who is sorting through her coupons and trying to get her total to add up to an exact amount by having the cashier add and subtract items, then add another until she's satisfied and can dig through her wallet some more to find exact change. We were in this predicament for what seemed like hours (but it was probably closer to 30 minutes--still, that's a long time to be second in line!) at Target the other night. I was feeling more and more impatient to be moving on to our other activities. Luckily, I have an awesome husband who reminded me that we didn't have anywhere we needed to be, and we could afford to be patient. I was especially grateful for his advise today, when the same thing happened at Macey's. It just goes to show that no matter how well you plan and schedule, life always happens and we need to learn how to roll with it.

The Invisible Woman

Yesterday, I was driving with my little brother John E, and we stopped to drop off something to our sister. At least 10 minutes after the detour, the following conversation ensued.

John from the back seat: "Hey Diane, did you know I finished my lego walker today?"
Mary: My name is Mary, and yes, you already showed me.
John: No, I was talking to Diane!
Mary: Diane's not in the car.
John: She's not? Where did she go?
Mary: She never got in the car. We just dropped off her toothbrush at her apartment. Remember?
John: I thought she was coming with us.

Either John was too enthralled in his game playing in the back seat to know what was going on, or his perception was skewed by his expectations. Either way, it made for a hilarious moment.

"Christmas Tree, Christmas Tree, Christmas Tree Rock"

Literally. Well, it was rocking a little, before we got it in the stand right. So, Barney said he needed to do an errand on the way home tonight. I was making dinner, thinking that he would just be a minute, and many many minutes later, I heard a thump at the door. Well, at this point, I was pretty much sure he was either tired of the cold weather and took off to Mexico, or he'd been abducted. So, I was a bit nervous to answer, but when I did and saw a huge, beautiful, live Christmas tree, I forgot all about Barney! (Just kidding!) I was so excited that he had bought a live tree! It's the first time I've ever had one, and I love it. (*note my excited and surprised expression to the left.) It's absolutely perfect! See! Look!

Well, it almost looks that good. All it has on it right now is a piece of twine I found and two empty boxes under it. Still, I think it looks pretty beautiful!

It's been a while

The other night, I was super sick (coughing up bits and pieces of my organs) and my thoughtful, talented and extremely attractive husband came to the rescue. There he was, at 3 in the morning, reminding me how to breathe, and coaching my coughs to not be so deep. Then, (whether in his delirium or consciousness, I know not) he started telling me one of the weirdest stories I've ever heard. (It actually seemed quite normal to me at the time, due to my state of being.) There was something about walking through a field of mud (which later became chocolate and chocolate chips on an ice cream sundae). Anyway, I was thinking that it would be pretty entertaining to record ourselves during the night, and listen to the things we think are logical when we are sleeping. I bet we would learn some interesting things about ourselves.

Is that a joke?

I just sat down to write this post, and this guy with a spray bottle full of cleaning suplies (who was drenching the drinking fountain with the toxic stuff), dropped the bottle and this scary pink liquid sprayed all over the girl he was working with, and started oozing on the floor.

Guy: are you okay?
Girl: *cough, cough, hack, screams of pain* "yeah, I'm fine"

so that's why they tell you to wear goggles. Do you think it's okay to drink out of that water fountain? She still hasn't come out of the bathroom. Talk about death of chivalry! Back in the day, if a guy even looked wrong at a girl it was rude. Now, he can throw toxic chemicals at her and get away with it?

Anyway, the reason for this post, was that I was indexing some names from a California 1920 census today. Some of it is somewhat decipherable, but other parts, are unbelievable. I don't know if it's just bad handwriting, or if the guy who was writing the census records was multi-tasking and watching their version of SNL or something. I can just see it:

Man (who we'll call Clifford) writing: "...John Hammond, Mary Edmund, ha, ha, ha Ecksnerzlenytrina. Shoot, do you think they'll be able to read that? Oh well..."

My question is, is Ecksnerzlenytrina a guy or a girl?

p.s. Barney and I have a new nephew!!! Congrats Net!